Indie Author – Marketing and Promotion

I find this the most challenging aspect of being an indie author. Marketing, promoting, and getting my books seen are the hardest part of self-publishing. Marketing and self-promoting come with its difficulties. I try to make my social media posts engaging, but it feels a little self-indulgent and a bit all-consuming that everything I post directly relates to the books I have written. I suppose it’s a bit like this blog; although I review other books and have written about my writing journey, I feel I am always promoting my writing. But let’s be honest… I have to. If this blog reaches people, I have to mention my books in the hope that people might be interested in knowing more and buying the books.

As of yet, I, the author, am hidden behind my posts, and I know that my engagement suffers as a direct impact of my inability to put myself out there. I am an invisible face behind my book covers and I have yet to take the tentative steps of revealing myself as an author. I write under a pen name and have never shared more intimate aspects of myself, but I know this hampers sales as my social media posts are not as engaging as those who bravely put themselves out there. Part of my reason for this is my current career. My job prevents me from revealing more about myself, and if I’m honest, it’s because of the potential backlash I may face given the work I do.

I feel my life must remain private and as such, as an author my books have not been as well promoted as they could have been. Part of engagement on social posts is being drawn to the warmth and personality the author reveals about themselves, and this is part of the promotion, as people are more likely to buy a book if they feel they know the person who has written it. I get that and wish I were in a position to be more open about who I am and my journey. Maybe one day I will be able to finally reveal the face behind the name and let those who follow me meet the person behind the words… although being Scottish, I do wonder if people will engage with my accent. It is notoriously difficult for people to understand, yet I hear some people love the dulcet tones of a Scottish accent!

Marketing is an altogether different beast. I don’t have an endless pot of money that I can use to run campaigns and draw attention to my books. The never-ending private messages I receive from marketers and promoters via social media would have most folk closing their socials down as it becomes more and more challenging to see through the scam artists who are looking to make a quick buck off of a newly published author, desperate to have their books seen. The book market is saturated with books of all genres, and people like me, who do not have the backing of a literary agent or a publishing house, really struggle to have their work seen.

I’m not bitter about those who have been successful in gaining a literary agent or indeed have the backing of a publishing house; I am, in fact, very happy for these authors as that’s the dream, isn’t it? I would be ecstatic if I were in their shoes, although the amount of time it takes to release a book through these channels is incredibly long, and this is another aspect of why I love independently publishing, as the book goes live and is instantly available. I also enjoy the fact that I can closely monitor my orders and page reads, and I frequently check these numbers, getting excited when I know someone is actively reading my work. I do not know who these people are, only what countries the books have been ordered from and even that is incredible, seeing my work has been read by people in Japan and the US whilst orders also climb from those in the UK where I am based.

As I sit here thinking about the marketing aspect of writing, I am disheartened that the book I am actively writing will suffer the same barriers, but I keep at it as surely, at some point, the books I have written will succeed. I could argue that they are already successful; if anyone is reading them, then I have an audience, no matter how small that audience might be at present. However, the long-term goal is to achieve success on another scale. In this situation, I would hope to sell thousands of copies of my books and get closer to my goal of becoming a full-time author, dedicating all my time to research and writing and not juggling an altogether different career.

I you are interested in reading my work, I have linked my most recently self-published book below:

The Last Coven